The List: 19 Oct 2000 (Issue 399)

PROMOTION. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Don King promotes events in which two fellows beat the bejesus out of each other and we largely approve. Richard Branson promotes himself and we put up with it. Our last three prime ministers have promoted a succession of gerbils to cabinet rank and we try our best to ignore it. But if a gay or lesbian theatre company creates a performance that discusses single-sex relationships, there are members of our community (we might class them as a trouble-making minority, like football hooligans) who call it a promotion of homosexuality that should be prosecuted under Section 28.

It seems incredible, but this year these crackpots came close to halting Glasgay!, the gay and lesbian community’s great annual arts event, through the agency of a certain Mrs Strain who took Strathclyde City Council to court for promoting homosexuality back in May. Yes, May 2000.

The threat to freedom of expression for both the gay community and, ultimately, the rest of us too has now passed (the legislation, officially known here as Section 2a, was repealed in the summer by the Scottish Executive, though it persists in England). All the same, taking Mrs Strain on her word — the word

Don't Forget Me

’promotion’, that is - I went off in search of these evil promoters. To my dismay, I found there was no press officer for lesbians. Nor could I find a company called Gay Men Promotions, even though almost every other group in Christendom has a PR firm attached to it. I did not repine at this lack of promotion; I turned back to the artists participating in Glasgay!

Lorenzo Mele, chair of Glasgay!, helped clarify the issue. ’That’s the problem with the word promotion,’ he said. ’lt’s about people’s own prejudices. What promotes is simply what some people don’t like. If there were legislation against inter-racial relationships, it would amount to the same thing.’

It seems that Mrs Thatcher, way back when, created a piece of ‘right you are, if you think you are’ legislation. Perhaps we should prosecute footballers for all that

canoodling after someone scores a -

goal. Looks like promotion (not relegation) to me. And that Jorg Albertz is definitely ginger. Haired. Mark Pinkosh (don’t like the sound of that surname, slap him in irons, keep him from your children, etc, etc) is equally mystified by the word. Working with long-term partner Godfrey Hamilton, the performer is half of Starving Artists, a Hollywood- based company whose string of

very funny.’ promises

gays and lesbians

Scottish hits ran through the 905 and included Road Movie, Earthquake Weather and Vipers Opium. On the eve of the premiere of what promises to be another theatrical pearl, Don’t Forget Me, presented in conjunction with Paisley Arts Centre, I asked him about the P word. ’We’ve got into the territory of wondering whether something promotes homosexuality, which turns into self-censorship, since people get afraid of prosecution,’ he said. ’I was in Britain when Mrs Thatcher passed the legislation. It meant that they didn’t have to use the legislation since people were so uncertain that they’d simply tone down their

integration or ostracism is

most extreme.‘ says Mele. ‘A gay man can be a good uncle. and a lesbian woman can have three children. They have the same struggles as other people.’

writer Hamilton. “Every crass stereotype you can imagine about Hollywood is nowhere near as awful as the reality. It‘s about a world where all you

3‘ sense of can do is laugh.’

Tron Theatre. F ri 3

‘5. & Sat 4 Nov. ' lust Pretending C \ w 3!. L

Lorenzo Mele of

7:84 directs Talking , ’3‘ Bollocks and ' Fingerlicks, gay and lesbian companies respectively. in a comedy which concentrates upon ‘ the pressures upon \

presented by family weddings. ‘These are

occasions where the A i“

w ‘1‘:

Godfrey Hamilton and Mark Pinkosh of Starving Artists, combining with Paisley Arts Centre, present a satire of their place of residence. Hollywood. Angus, a gay movie producer at the end of his tether meets Chip, a young wannabe actor, who might be gay or just gay chic. ‘lt‘s